Gov. Christie says extra aid to 31 of N.J.'s poorest school districts is driving up taxes

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerGov. Christie Christie takes questions from the audience at a town hall meeting March 9 in Hopatcong.

CAPE MAY — Gov. Chris Christie said a requirement that the state provide extra funding to its 31 poorest school systems is driving up property taxes in other districts.

State spending in those poorer districts has risen to 59 percent of education outlays from 36 percent in 1988, Christie said at a town-hall meeting today in Cape May. More than 550 districts across the state split the remaining 41 percent, the first-term Republican said.

New Jersey’s homeowners pay the nation’s highest average property-tax bills, according to the Washington-based Tax foundation. Residential real-estate levies, the prime source of education money in middle- and upper-class school systems, rose about 4 percent in 2010 to an average of $7,756 per property.

“What happens in all those other districts, property taxes go up and you’re getting hit twice,” Christie told a crowd in an aviation hangar. “Less state money is going everywhere else.”

Funding to the 31 districts, which receive increased state money under a series of court orders, totals about $4.4 billion, Christie said. Public-school funding accounts for close to a third of the state budget and schools raise $15 billion annually through property taxes, he said.

The New Jersey Supreme Court is weighing the effects of school-funding reductions that Christie made last year to balance the budget.

A judge appointed to help the high court decide the issue said March 22 that Christie underfunded education by $1.6 billion, preventing schools from offering the “thorough and efficient” education required by the state Constitution.